Professional Logo Design for a high quality corporate logo is one of the most important steps in building your company’s image. With increasing competition in every industry it’s more important then ever to set your company apart from the crowd. A professional logo will help you establish brand awareness.

What Does A Good Logo Do For Your Company?

Many business owners are unaware of the power of having a high quality logo to represent their company.

• A professional logo represents your company in many different ways. Some you may not even be aware of.
• Your future success depends heavily on the professional image your company presents to your target audience.
• An effective logo design will grab your customer’s attention and draw them to your company.
• Customers relate much easier to a business with a strong corporate identity
• A company logo is the most visible part of your professional image.

Does having a logo impacted your business?

Read more about logos and how they can help you reach new customers.

Why A Professional Logo Design

Whether starting a new business, or redefining your company image, the most important part of your corporate identity is a powerful, well planned, professional logo design.

Don’t risk the future success of your business by choosing the wrong company to design your logo. So many business owners put too much emphasis on price, often looking to spend the least amount of money on creating their logo. This is one of the worst decisions a business owner can make. Instead of basing this decision on price, businesses should focus on value.

Value vs Price

When price shopping a customer will try to find the lowest bidder to complete the project. This often leads to inferior results and many frustrating hours of wasted time. It might seem like a good deal because you are paying less for the final product, but if the outcome leaves you with a logo that is poor quality and takes too long to complete, you really end up losing in the end.

Value shopping is a much more rewarding approach. Choose your designer based on quality, professionalism, dependability and creative ability. Turn around time is not as high a priority as quality. You get much better results by being patient and allowing sufficient time for the artist to explore different ideas and creating multiple concepts to choose from.

Quality vs Speed

Many business owners don’t understand the complex process of design. So many times people see a simple logo and assume that the process to create such a simple image is easy. Just a few clicks of the mouse and your logo’s finished. What many fail to realize is the creative process and preparing ideas for a high impact logo might take as little as a few minutes or as long as several days to conceptualize.

This is where decision makers can save a lot of money. Conceptualizing your iconic image, the style of design and color scheme prior to approaching a designer will enable you to save many hours of production time and give you more control over the final outcome of your project.

Types of Logo Design

Decide what type of logo you want to represent your company. There are many types of logos but I’ll focus on the three most common.

• Text Based – A text based logo design is typically the name of the company typeset in a creative looking font or combination of several different fonts. For an example of a text based logo look at FedEx, Disney, Coca Cola logos.
• Icon Based – The icon based logo design usually incorporates a graphic representation of your company. Many business owners choose and icon that is representative of their industry, or the services they provide. The icon based logo should be simplistic in design (not cheap) and incorporate a minimal amount of texture, detail and color. For an example of the icon based logo look at the Nike, AT&T logos. This is by far the hardest type of logo to use as a corporate brand. When done successfully it is ingenious, because of the risk involved.
• Combination – A combination logo design is an iconic image combined with a text based logo. This is by far the most common request by business owners. For an example of a combination logo look at the Starbucks, Sprint, NBA logos. This is probably the most effective type of logo for small businesses to incorporate but can be more expensive and time consuming to complete.

Examples of Icon Logo Designs

• Animals
• Geometric shapes
• Tribal
• Patterns
• Flowers

Colors and Style

Choosing the right colors and style for your company logo is every bit as important as choosing the type of logo that will represent your company. This is a very important step in this process and should not be taken lightly.

Logo Colors

Different colors actually influence the behavior of customers. What may seem cool or exciting to a business owner, might be a big turn-off to your potential customer base. A big mistake that business owners make is choosing colors that they like simply because it’s their favorite colors. What most business owners fail to realize is that their customers might be attracted to something completely different then they are. There is a more scientific approach to choosing an attractive color scheme then just picking colors that you like.

You have to remember, you’re selling to other people, not to yourself. Keeping your customer in mind when creating your corporate identity is one of the most important things to consider.

Here are some other points to consider:

• Tones – does your logo use many colors from the spectrum or remain within a narrow range of color?
• Influence – learn how different colors affect peoples emotions and purchasing habits. Some colors incite passion while others provide a calming relaxing affect on people.
• Visibility – does your color scheme stand out? sometimes subtle is better. decide whether your color scheme will be understated or overt. Understated usually indicates confidence, elegance, luxury and attracts high end buyers. Overt colors get immediate attention, catch peoples eye and draw them in.
• Comfort – is your color scheme comfortable for others to look at? red over blue is very harsh for most people to look at. does your color scheme draw people in or make them close their eyes when they look at it?

Logo Styles

Choosing the style of your logo is similar to choosing color for your logo in respect to your target audience. Ask yourself, is this a good logo because I like it or is it a good logo because it will attract customers and stick in their minds? There are many different styles of logos and the easiest way to choose a style is to study other logos. It’s difficult to label a logo by style as this is a subjective area. Just look at as many different logos as you can before deciding which style you like.

Keep these points in mind when choosing the style for your logo:

• Lines – are they thick, thin, curvy, straight etc.
• White Space – white space is the area of the logo that is not covered with color. is the white space minimal or very prominent? are there hidden images in the white space?

Final Preparation

Once you’ve decided on the concept it’s time to execute the design for your logo. This is where you must invest some money and decide what is the best way to invest.

Should you have a professional create the digital version of your logo, or should you purchase the software and books or online courses to learn the technical aspect of digital design and do-it-yourself?

Simple does not equal easy.

It is important to remember that your time as a business owner, is much better spent developing your business model and making money then learning how to design your own logo. It’s also important to realize the effort and cost that designers invest in learning their craft. Your logo is too important to leave in the hands of someone with little or no training. This is not an area you want to skimp on your spending.

If you want high quality be prepared to pay a good price. The cost of buying the software and learning how to use it correctly is much greater then hiring a professional to do it for you. It is not uncommon for businesses to spend several thousand dollars on their logo. Don’t be afraid to invest in this area of your business.

If you’re interested in working with a truly professional company with a solid client base and a proven track record contact Andrew at AMI Studios. We understand how critical this process is and will deliver your professional logo design at a price that will fit your budget.

Now that you understand the conceptual process you just need to decide whether to hire a professional or design your own logo.